Automatic irrigation systems such as those employed for landscape and agricultural watering are well known in the art. Typical irrigation systems use a means of controlling the watering cycles via a programmable irrigation controller.
However, user programmed irrigation schedules often require additional environmental information to accurately provide a desired amount of water to the irrigation zone. More specifically, irrigation schedules more accurately maintain a desired soil moisture level when they are responsive to precipitation, high wind and freezing temperature situations.
The simplest method of suspending an automatic watering cycle in an irrigation system involves the operator manually canceling a cycle at an irrigation controller. Often this method proves to be unreliable and inconvenient due to operator inconsistencies. Often an operator ignores the need to suspend the watering cycle, and/or neglects to resume the watering cycle when required. This may cause over-watering and under-watering of the landscaping.
Rain sensors for irrigation systems are an effective and economical method of conserving water, energy, and costs. One such rain sensor for an irrigation system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,452,499, which is incorporated herein by reference. This patent shows an easy to install rain sensor which wirelessly transmits rain sensor data to an irrigation system. A more advanced wireless rain sensor can be seen in U.S. Pub. No. 2006/0100747, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.